EP Plenary Session Newsletter 18-21 May 2015

13-05-2015

What will the MEPs be working on during next week's Plenary Session in Strasbourg ? Highlights include: - Debate on the European Agenda on Migration for 2015-2020 - Tougher rules on money laundering to fight tax evasion and terrorist financing - Debate and vote on a law to stem the flow of “conflict minerals” - Maternity leave: deliver now or start from scratch - MEPs set out blueprint for safer healthcare - Counterfeit cigarettes: MEPs to question future of EU deals with tobacco firms

Debate on the European Agenda on Migration for 2015-2020

MEPs will give their views on the European Agenda on Migration presented by the Commission on 13 May in a debate with Commission Vice-president Frans Timmermans and the Council presidency on Wednesday at 9.00. The four pillars are a stronger common asylum policy, including an EU-wide resettlement scheme and relocation inside the EU in emergency situations, fighting trafficking and preventing irregular migration, managing external borders, and a new policy on legal migration.

Parliament has been calling on the European Commission to come up with an "ambitious European agenda on migration, which takes into account all aspects of migration". This call was reiterated in a resolution, voted on 29 April, on the latest tragedies in the Mediterranean and on EU migration and asylum policies.

The Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee is currently drafting a report which will reflect Parliament’
s medium- and longer-term policy orientations on migration. The co-rapporteurs are Roberta Metsola (EPP, MT) and Kashetu Kyenge (S&D, IT).

Note to editors

Resettlement is the process whereby, at the request of the UN Refugee Agency, based on a person’s need for international protection, non-EU nationals are transferred from a non- EU country and established in a member state.
Relocation is the transfer of asylum seekers or refugees from one EU member state to another.

The ultimate owners of companies will have to be listed in central registers in EU countries, open both to the authorities and to people with a "legitimate interest", such as journalists, under a Parliament/Council deal to be debated on Tuesday and voted on Wednesday. The new anti-money laundering directive aims to help to fight money laundering, tax crimes and terrorist financing. New rules to make it easier to trace transfers of funds will also be put to a vote.

The fourth anti-money laundering directive (AMLD) will for the first time oblige EU member states to keep central registers listing the ultimate "beneficial" owners of corporate and other legal entities, as well as trusts. This provision was included by MEPs in the negotiations. The text also requires banks, auditors, lawyers, real estate agents and casinos, among others, to be more vigilant about suspicious transactions made by their clients.

MEPs will also vote on the deal reached in December on the “transfers of funds” regulation, which aims to improve the traceability of payers and payees and their assets.

Money laundered each year amounts to 2-5% of global GDP.

Note to editors

A "beneficial" owner actually owns or controls a company and its activities and ultimately authorises transactions, whether such ownership is exercised directly or by a proxy.

Debate on Hungary

MEPs will debate the situation in Hungary with Commission Vice-president Frans Timmermans on Tuesday at 15.00. The debate follows Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's remarks on the possibility of reinstating capital punishment in Hungary and a public consultation on immigration launched by the Hungarian government.

The Civil Liberties Committee held a debate on the possible effects of an EU member state decision to reintroduce the death penalty, including those on its rights and status as a member state, on Thursday 7 May. This debate was prompted by the Conference of Presidents' decision of 30 April to ask the Civil Liberties Committee to examine the issue "as a matter of urgency".

Debate and vote on a law to stem the flow of “conflict minerals”

A draft law to help stem the flow of revenue to armed groups from sales of tin, tantalum and tungsten, their ores, and gold will be debated on Tuesday and put to a vote on Wednesday. The draft, already approved by the EP Trade Committee, provides for mandatory certification of EU smelters and refiners and voluntary certification of operators who buy, process and use these minerals and metals to make mobile phones, washing machines, fridges, etc.

Parliament is divided over whether a mandatory certification scheme should apply to everyone in the supply chain of metals and minerals originating in conflict-affected and high-risk areas.

Debate on proposed digital single market strategy

The new EU digital single market strategy, tabled by the European Commission on 6 May, will be analysed in a debate on Tuesday morning. The strategy, which sets out 16 initiatives, including proposals on e-commerce, geo-blocking, telecoms and copyright, will be presented by Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip.

Next steps

Parliament will respond to the proposal with an own-initiative report, drafted in cooperation by several parliamentary committees, including the committees for Industry, Internal Market and Legal Affairs.

VAT rules for ebooks and epapers

In a separate debate on Monday, MEPs will focus on existing VAT rules for digital books, papers and services in a debate with Commissioner Günther Oettinger, who is in charge of the digital economy.

MEPs set out blueprint for safer healthcare

A resolution setting out measures to improve patient safety, inter alia by tackling growing resistance to human and veterinary antibiotics will be discussed on Monday and put to a vote on Tuesday. Furthermore, MEPs also state concerns about healthcare infections which reportedly affect 8-12 % of patients admitted to hospitals in the EU.

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a major public health problem in EU member states.

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control figures show that in the EU, 1 in 20 hospital in-patients, i.e. 4.1 million patients annually, suffers an HAI , and 37,000 people die as a result every yearOf these casesn 20%-30% are considered to be preventable by intensive hygiene and control programmes.

Antimicrobial resistance is growing in the EU and worldwide. Some bacterial pathogens are now proving antibiotic-resistant in 25% of cases in some EU member states and HAIs caused by multidrug resistant bacteria are increasing.

The draft measures aim to ensure that existing treatments are used more responsibly and promote innovation.

Should the EU’s anti-counterfeiting "tobacco agreements" with four major producers be killed off? Some MEPs say they were rendered obsolete by better tracing and tracking tools introduced by the EU’s new tobacco directive. MEPs will debate the issue after a Commission statement on Monday. The first tobacco agreement expires in July 2016.

The EU’s four tobacco cooperation agreements are with Philip Morris International (PMI), Japan Tobacco International (JTI), Imperial Tobacco Limited (ITL) and British American Tobacco (BAT).

Several MEPs say the tobacco agreements, designed to fight counterfeit cigarette manufacturing and smuggling, should go because they have been rendered obsolete by the mandatory tracing and tracking tools included in the new EU tobacco directive,and by the EU's signature of the WHO protocol against illicit tobacco trade.

Irish MEPs on this issue: Nessa Childers, Independent, (Dublin)

MEPs to assess Turkey’s 2014 reform progress

Turkey must step up the fight against corruption, guarantee the freedom of media and of expression and respect the independence of the judiciary, MEPs are likely to stress on Wednesday. In a draft resolution assessing Turkey’s 2014 reform progress, they urge the Turkish government to commit itself “unequivocally” to democratic rules and principles and call for more intensive EU-Turkey cooperation on foreign policy.

Irish MEPs on this issue: Brian Hayes, Fine Gael, (Dublin)

MEPs to debate security and defence ahead of June summit

The EU and its member states must shoulder more responsibility for their security and defence at once, to enable them to cope with new security challenges at EU borders, MEPs are likely to say in a debate with the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Tuesday. The debate takes place ahead of the keenly-awaited June European Council on defence.

Parliament votes on its annual resolution on the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) on Wednesday. The draft, prepared in the Foreign Affairs Committee, urges EU member states to make more effective use of CSDP tools, coordinate their internal and external security actions better and pool resources more closely.

In a separate resolution, also to be voted on Thursday, MEPs will also make the case for proper funding of the CSDP through increased efficiency and solidarity among member states.

Irish MEPs on this issue: Deirdre Clune, Fine Gael, (South)

MEPs’ expectations for Riga Eastern Partnership a summit

MEPs will set out their expectations for the 21-22 May EU Eastern Partnership summit in a debate with EU Foreign Affairs High representative Federica Mogherini on Wednesday. The summit, in Riga (Lativa) will bring together EU leaders and those of the EU’s “eastern neighbourhood” countries.

Debate on crisis and killings in former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

MEPs are to debate the political crisis in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, exacerbated by the killings of 14 ethnic Albanians and 8 police officers over the weekend, with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Wednesday afternoon. The 22 people died in a day-long police raid on an ethnic Albanian neighbourhood in the north of the country. The government describes the Albanian victims of the gun battle as “terrorists”.

MEPs will also debate the current situation in Ethiopia, ahead of the 24 May parliamentary elections there, with Federica Mogherini on Wednesday.

MEPs set to urge Japan to put its new "scientific whaling" programme on hold

MEPs are set to urge Japan to put its new Antarctic whaling “research” programme on hold until the International Whaling Commission (IWC) reviews it in September 2016. In a debate on Wednesday they will point out that the Hague International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in 2014 that Japan's previous "research" whaling programme was not for genuinely scientific purposes. Japan then announced a replacement programme to start at the end of 2015.

In a 2012 resolution, MEPs said that they "seek to end so-called scientific whaling and support the designation of substantial regions of ocean and seas as sanctuaries in which all whaling is indefinitely prohibited". They also noted that "serious divergences" remained between the EU and Japan on fisheries management and whaling issues.

Parliament will insist that everything possible must be done to tackle the outbreak of Xylella fastidiosa bacteria and prevent it spreading to other EU regions, including spending more on research, in a resolution to be voted on Wednesday. Xylella has already infected several thousand hectares of olive plantations in Italy, prompting fears among neighbouring states that it could spread further.

In Parliament’s April plenary debate, MEPs asked the European Commission to compensate growers whose trees have to be destroyed due to eradication measures. They also called on the EU's executive to pursue research to do away with deadly plant diseases caused by pathogens such as Xylella fastidiosa and so-called Black Spot, found in citrus imports from South Africa.

Note to editors

Xylella fastidiosa has already infected thousands of hectares of olive trees in Puglia region in Southern Italy and might also attack other plant species, such as citrus, grapevines and stone fruits (almond, peach, plum), leading, in the most severe cases, to their death.

Italy grows olives on about 1,700,000 ha, making it the EU’s second largest grower after Spain. Around 80% of this area is in southern Italy, including about 370,000 ha in the Apulia region alone.

New rules on cross-border insolvency proceedings

Struggling firms that do business across borders should get some breathing space to restructure their operations and finances so as to avoid going bust, under revised EU rules on cross-border insolvency proceedings to be debated on Tuesday and voted on Wednesday. At the same time, the new rules will clarify which member state has jurisdiction to open the proceeding, so as to prevent insolvency “forum shopping”

A vote in favour would confirm an informal deal struck in November 2014 with the Council of Ministers, which formally approved it on 12 March.
The idea of including individuals and households in the scope of the new approach to business failure and insolvency, which aims to give potentially viable firms a second chance, will also be debated with the Commission on Tuesday.

According to the European Commission, 50,000 firms face cross-border insolvency proceedings every year, and about 400,000 people lose their jobs each year due to cross-border insolvencies.

MEPs to urge EU countries to stick to foreign aid commitments

MEPs will ask member states to respect their Official Development Assistance (ODA) target of 0.7% of national income in a debate on Monday and a vote on Tuesday. They are also set to stress the great potential of mobilising domestic resources efficiently in developing countries and the importance of private sector contributions.

The resolution to be voted will serve as Parliament's contribution to the EU position in July's high-level conference on financing for development in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia).

The new UN global Sustainable Development Goals (post-2015 development agenda) are to be approved at a UN General Assembly summit in New York in September.

MEPs set to vote for robust and transparent benchmark setting

A draft EU law to make the benchmarks used to price EU citizens’ mortgages, loans and bonds more trustworthy will be put to vote on Tuesday. It aims to clean up the benchmark-setting process, by curbing conflicts of interest like those that led to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) rigging scandals of recent years.

The draft law aims to curb conflicts of interest in setting benchmarks, such as LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) or EURIBOR (Euro Interbank Offered Rate), which influence financial instruments and contracts which have an average value of at least €500 billion and could thus affect the stability of financial markets across Europe.

All benchmark “administrators” collecting, analysing and processing data that are not publicly available or using a formula or calculation method to determine a benchmark would have to be registered with the ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) and would have to publish a “benchmark statement” defining precisely what their benchmark measures and to what extent it is reliable.

The draft law, already approved by the Economic and Monetary Affair Committee, is being put to vote by Parliament as a whole to consolidate its position for three-way talks on the draft with member states and the Commission.

Irish MEPs on this issue: Brian Hayes, Fine Gael, (Dublin)

EU energy price watchdog needs more staff to prevent market abuses

EU energy agency ACER has too few staff to monitor EU energy markets properly, so market abuses and unfair price hikes might go undetected, MEPs will warn in a debate with energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete on Thursday. They will ask him whether the Commission plans to boost ACER’s 2016 EU budget allocation to remedy the shortage. The agency needs an estimated 45 new full-time staff members, but has been allocated only 15.

The 2011 EU regulation on wholesale energy market integrity and transparency (REMIT), is designed to prevent abuse in wholesale energy trading. It assigns the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) a key role in screening, analysing and assessing many market transactions as from 7 October 2015.

MEPs have several times raised concerns over a lack of funds to hire sufficient staff to shoulder this responsibility.

Irish MEPs on this issue: Sean Kelly, Fine Gael, (South)

Maternity leave: deliver now or start from scratch

Commission plans to withdraw a draft EU directive on maternity leave, after four years’ deadlock in the Council, will be debated in the light of EU Commission and Council statements on Tuesday afternoon. In a draft resolution to be put to a vote on Wednesday, MEPs call the Council of Ministers to resume talks and state its official position.

If the European Commission does withdraw the draft law, then MEPs would urge it to table a new legislative initiative quickly, and in any event under the forthcoming Luxembourg Presidency of the Council.

The European Parliament amended the first draft in October 2010 to extend maternity leave from 14 to 20 weeks on full pay and introduce two weeks’ fully paid paternity leave.

Background note for editors

In October 2008, the Commission proposed to review the current legislation (Directive 92/85), as part of the "work-life balance" package, based on the ILO Maternity Protection Convention of 2000. In October 2010 the European Parliament closed its first reading and submitted the amended legislation to the Council. The Council has yet to state any position on the issue.

The Commission stated its intention to withdraw the draft proposal in line with its Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT).

For further information, please contact Catherine Bunyan, Press Officer on 086 8559423 or at catherine.bunyan@ep.europa.eu or contact the Irish MEPs' Press Officers directly.

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